' Lord Bagshot, who for the occasional notice of the Duke of St.
James had been so long a ready and patient butt, now appeared to assume
a higher character, and addressed his friend in a tone and manner which
were authorised by the equality of their rank and the sympathy of their
tastes. If this change had taken place in the conduct of the Viscount,
it was not a singular one. The Duke also, to his surprise, found himself
addressing his former butt in a very different style from that which he
had assumed in the ballroom of Doncaster. In vain he tried to rally, in
vain he tried to snub. It was indeed in vain. He no longer possessed any
right to express his contempt of his companion. That contempt, indeed,
he still felt. He despised Lord Bagshot still, but he also despised
himself.
The soft and silky Baron was a different sort of personage; but
there was something sinister in all his elaborate courtesy and highly
artificial manner, which did not touch the feelings of the Duke, whose
courtesy was but the expression of his noble feelings, and whose grace
was only the impulse of his rich and costly blood.
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